Skip to content

· Private foundation

Sursum Corda Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$23k
Granted FY2025still arriving
14
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Education$81kCivil Rights$13kHealth$7kReligion$5k
02FY2025 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$2,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$548k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUND$2,500
MSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUND$2,000
ST JOHN BOSCO SCHOOL$2,000
SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP$2,000
ST IGNATIUS MARTYR CATHOLIC SCHOOL$2,000
OUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOL$2,000
UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS$2,000
CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL$2,000
AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY$2,000
OUR LADY OF VICTORY CATHOLIC SCHOOL$1,000
SUNSHINE COTTAGE SCHOOL FOR DEAF CHILDREN$1,000
THE JOHN PAUL II LIFE CENTER$1,000
ST MARY'S CATHOLIC CENTER$1,000
CHILDREN & ARTHRITIS INC$300
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 84% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%ST IGNATIUS MARTYR CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $2k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS: $2k → 14%CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: $2k → 16%OUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $2k → 16%VET TECH INSTITUTE OF HOUSTON FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: $3k → 16%AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY: $2k → 10%MSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $2k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS: $2k → 14%CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: $2k → 16%OUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $2k → 16%VICTORIA COLLEGE FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: $2k → 16%AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY: $2k → 10%MSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $2k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS: $2k → 14%CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: $2k → 16%OUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $2k → 16%VET TECH INSTITUTE OF HOUSTON FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: $2k → 16%AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY: $2k → 10%MSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $2k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS: $2k → 14%CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: $2k → 16%OUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $2k → 16%VET TECH INSTITUTE OF HOUSTON FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: $2k → 16%AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY: $2k → 10%MSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $2k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS: $2k → 14%CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: $2k → 16%OUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $2k → 16%SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: $2k → 16%AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY: $2k → 10%MSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $2k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS: $2k → 14%CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: $2k → 16%OUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $2k → 16%SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: $2k → 16%AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY: $2k → 10%MSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $2k → 17%ST JOHN BOSCO SCHOOL: $2k → 16%TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $3k → 16%ST JOHN BOSCO SCHOOL: $2k → 16%TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $3k → 16%ST JOHN BOSCO SCHOOL: $2k → 16%TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $3k → 16%ST JOHN BOSCO SCHOOL: $2k → 16%TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $3k → 16%ST JOHN BOSCO SCHOOL: $2k → 16%TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $3k → 16%TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $3k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$123k · 15 repeat orgs$4k to everyone else

15 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
1

Total granted

$123k
$2k

Still filing today

33%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthCommunity ImprovementOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • AM
    AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $12k · revenue +127%
  • UO
    University of Dallas
    6× · 2020–2025 · $12k · revenue +22%
  • SC
    SUNSHINE COTTAGE SCHOOL FOR DEAF CHILDREN
    6× · 2020–2025 · $6k · revenue +25%

Funded once

  • VC
    VICTORIA COLLEGE FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
    one grant, 2024 · $2k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field
04the grantee network

5 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 5 of the 17 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/5
Grantees still filing
5/5
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $15,000 · OtherTEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE EDUCATIONAL FUNDOUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $12,000 · OtherOUR LADY OF THE GULF CATHOLIC SCHOOLMSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $12,000 · OtherMSGR CB MOTSETT SCHOLARSHIP FUNDST JOHN BOSCO SCHOOL: $12,000 · OtherST JOHN BOSCO SCHOOLCENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: $12,000 · OtherCENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLVET TECH INSTITUTE OF HOUSTON FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: $6,500 · OtherVET TECH INSTITUTE OF HOUSTON FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPST MARY CATHOLIC CHURCH COLLEGE STATION TEXAS: $6,000 · OtherST MARY CATHOLIC CHURCH COLLEGE STATION TEXASOUR LADY OF VICTORY CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $4,000 · OtherSAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY FOR IRA & MARGARET SKLAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: $4,000 · Other+3 more: $6,000 · Other+3 moreAVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC: $12,000 · EducationAVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INCUniversity of Dallas: $12,000 · EducationUniversity of DallasSUNSHINE COTTAGE SCHOOL FOR DEAF CHILDREN: $6,000 · EducationSUNSHINE COTTAGE SCHOOL FO…ST JOHN PAUL II LIFE CENTER: $6,000 · HealthCHILDREN AND ARTHRITIS: $1,800 · Community Improvement
Other$89,500Education$30,000Health$6,000Community Improvement$1,800

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC: $12,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Dallas: $12,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetSUNSHINE COTTAGE SCHOOL FOR DEAF CHILDREN: $6,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetST JOHN PAUL II LIFE CENTER: $6,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetCHILDREN AND ARTHRITIS: $1,800 over 6y, 0.7% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY INC ↗
  • Who funds University of Dallas ↗
  • Who funds SUNSHINE COTTAGE SCHOOL FOR DEAF CHILDREN ↗
  • Who funds ST JOHN PAUL II LIFE CENTER ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN AND ARTHRITIS ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

American Online Giving Foundation IncDE7.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Sursum Corda Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sursum Corda Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Ave Maria University Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 17 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Sursum Corda’s filings →

More from the funding graph